Differential expression of transcription factors in three generations of excised roots of Aquilaria sinensis under salt stress / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the expression patterns and levels of transcription factors (TFs) in three generations of excised roots of Aquilaria sinensis under salt stress, and analyze the variation of TFs family genes in each generation in response to salt stress. Methods The excised roots of A. sinensis were used as experimental material, using highthroughput sequencing technology (Illumina Hiseq4000), all the unigene sequences were compared with the plant transcription factor database (PlantTFDB), and the three generation differential expressed TFs between the treated and the control group were analyzed. Results:A total of 48 286 Unigenes were obtained by de novo splicing from three generation of excised roots of A. sinensis, containing 1 156 potential TFs distributed in 54 TF families. Among them, bHLH, ERF, and NAC were the three most enriched families. Totally, 290, 277, and 349 differentially expressed TFs were respectively screened in three successive generations, which were mainly down-regulated. The expression induced by salt stress were different in each TF family, the numbers of up-regulated DEGs increased in NAC, MYB, and WRKY families, and decreased in GRAS family with the increase of stressed generations. There were 70 common TFs differentially expressed in three generations, and the down-regulated expression multiples of eight genes increased with the increase of salt stress generations. Conclusion:The effect of salt stress on the expression of TFs was mainly down-regulatied. The number of differential expressed TFs in the treated and control group increased with the increase of salt stress generations. The expression of different TF family genes was different under salt stress, and some genes might be involved in the transmission of stressful memory. This study is helpful to understand the expression characteristics of TFs at the whole level and provide a reference for further study on the stressful memories and the molecular mechanism of the salt stress response.